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A Pot Less Gentleman's Guide

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The British summer is here. Time for sun, sea and sand. Not that, Portsmouth manages to have a whole lot of sun sometimes. Going abroad on holiday is never cheap, but friends and family are flying off to a variety of different places around the globe. There are a number of different schools of thought on how to save dough when it comes to flying abroad. For some, the best way is to sit and wait for the flights to first be announced at the beginning of the year. Others, the risk takers, are the people daring enough to rock up at the airport and get a last minute seat on a plane going anywhere. In my obscure vision, they seem a lot like stocks and shares - no one really knows the best way. My holiday money-saving fixes are: 1. Luggage, or lack of. When me and the other half travel abroad, as much as I moan about wanting to take a suitcase, packing clothes in hand luggage does save a good buck. 2.Packing less The key to this is very similar to having a capsule wardrobe. Owning simple, effective …

Bank holidays have always escaped me.Since starting work in an office, it's been good to start taking advantage of bank holidays and enjoying the extra time off. Working in retail I always used to be working. It would be busy, lots of other people would have the time off and living in the waterfront city of Portsmouth, a lot of people visit the sea on their long weekend.

Over the last bank holiday, me and the Other Half didn't spend it by the sea, but instead headed inland to my home village (think Vicar of Dibley kind of village) for the annual May Fair.

The May Fair in Aldbury is a huge event. Every year hundreds of people all across the county visit the tiny village of Aldbury, to take part in raffles, check out some of the local goods, try their luck on the coconut shy and even send their fluffy loved ones down the 'Teddy Tower of Terror'.
It's the biggest event in the village, and takes months to organise. It's incredible the amount of dedication put in fr…

I've recently started a new job, which you may have noticed with the very slow coming job application posts. I have more coming, better late than never eh!

It's been interesting adapting from being on my feet all day to starting work in an office.
There are so many changes I've had to get used to. But I'll get into those more in another post.
This weekend was the companies end of quarter, which means appraisals, meetings and presentations. But what was different from anywhere else I've worked, was going for drinks after!

The other companies I have worked for had always made note of each quarter. We'd get some sort of correspondence and maybe the odd meeting from our operational manager. But we never celebrated it, not to the extent of the company I currently work for.

It was an interesting day, everyone was talking about plans for the night, whether they were going, where they were going, what they were up to. Those who weren't going out suffered the odd bi…

Applying for jobs is a long and persistent process.There's a lot of rejection and self criticism, but at the same time you learn a lot about yourself and on top of that, there is also a lot of recognition of you're own achievements and what you can do. The first step in a job search is a CV. This, what some might consider only a small amount of information, is supposed to be a window in to who you are and what you are about to employers. So it's got to hit the nail on the head! I'd normally say I'm quite good at self criticism, but writing a CV is hard! Selling your self with only a couple of pages of paper, and to a stranger no less! How much information do you put about each role? Do you bullet point it? Do you put a picture?!?! My best advice from the start. Get someone to write your CV with. You can bounce ideas off of them and they can help put another perspective on who you are and what your strengths are. My other half helped me with mine, which I'm sure is how she…

I left school when I was young because I didn't enjoy the classes I was doing (My mistake was not paying enough attention enough in the classes that I did enjoy) and so I left eduction for full time employment in retail.
When I left I knew I couldn't simply do what I was doing and I knew I had to work up.
I made a plan in my head, and like most of you might do, if you have goal, you set a timeline to it as to what you want to achieve and by when.
What I hadn't considered, is that circumstances change. The company changed the progression process numerous times, where I worked and the kind of work I have been doing has changed and ultimately, my own sense of what I want to achieve has changed and what my values are now have changed.

Maybe the career plan I made 5 years ago needs a bit of a tweak.

I've always been one to aim for the stars. I know now that my decision to leave eduction was not the best, but I have le…

There are many different goals I want to achieve. Some very big, some very small.
I like to break my goals in to smaller little chunks to make them manageable.
One that I'm really looking forward to keeping up, is being more organised.
I've always been one to believe that, if you keep everything around you tidy, you'll be keeping everything inside tidy too. Or as my driving instructor says "Clean car, clean drive".
My problem is I've never been the best at keeping everything around me tidy.

yesterday, I cleaned the flat. Top to bottom.
Today, was a slightly bigger job.
I've spent my day filing and clearing up paperwork.
Now a lot of you might consider this as a lot of procrastination.
But I think getting rid of the little problems, frees your head up for the bigger ones.
It might seem like I've hid myself from my bigger goals, but I'm actually pretty proud of the job that I've done

I started this blog to help those with not a lot, live like they have everything.
I have little chunks of advice, from personal experience, but the more and more I read from other people. The more I see. The more I experience. The more I realise that I have so much more to learn, to get the luxury lifestyle.
I consider myself successful in any aspects of my life. I have a wonderful girlfriend, I own my own flat at the age of 22 and I can rather happily afford to live with a good quality of life.
But there other aspects of my life where I consider myself less successful.
My job isn't particularly fulfilling, I have quite a chunk of debt, I can't seem to pass a driving test to save my life and one of my best examples is this blog!
I've spent far too long about worrying what I'm going to write, what I'm going to talk about next, how I'm going to write it. I've done this worrying for too long.
Like the other aspects of my life, that I don't feel are as succ…

In my early twenties in the UK and trying, like every man (and woman's) dream, to live that luxury lifestyle. But like every other average man or woman, I don't quite have the budget. Want the same thing? Join me as I show you how to make show stopping meals for dinner parties, dress to impress whether it's business or casual, all at the same time trying to make your money go further. Find it all including anecdotes of my life as I live it at: www.apotlessgentleman.co.uk